Provider network launches care coordination platform from population health technology leader HealthBI; aims to transition role of managing risk from health plans to providers while improving outcomes for vulnerable communities.

In a pairing that signals the fast-approaching end of cumbersome care management that produces only sporadic results, the HealthBI CareEmpower care coordination platform has been deployed by Equality Health, one of the fastest-growing provider networks in the Southwest. HealthBI’s CareEmpower platform essentially relieves health plans from the responsibility of being “the keeper” of all patient data–and for compiling quality reports that are often too outdated to be of help to providers. Instead, CareEmpower gives providers the actionable data they need to close open care gaps and improve outcomes for even the most vulnerable communities.

“For Equality Health, and for health plans everywhere, the CareEmpower care coordination platform is a much sounder financial investment than internally-focused care management software that has become obsolete in the face of HealthBI’s robust, real time data,” stated Mark Wright, president, Equality Health Network.

A positive and overdue disruption

Despite major healthcare advances in recent years, many underserved populations still experience significant disparities in access to quality care, leading to poor outcomes such as increased hospital readmissions—as evidenced by a 2016 study published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality.

Ending this costly, avoidable overuse of acute and emergency healthcare is a key objective for Equality Health. It is also one that health plans struggled to achieve, with little success, using traditional care management systems.

“HealthBI’s CareEmpower platform effectively liberates these entities from such systems—while rewarding providers with data that makes it finally possible to move the needle on high risk patients,” noted Scott McFarland, president, HealthBI.

Now the providers in Equality Health’s own network can identify their highest risk members, create actionable care plans for them, close open care gaps and track progress with CareEmpower. Equality Health plans to roll out the platform to 900+ providers in Arizona with continued expansion throughout that state, as well as in California and in other states in the Southwest.

Wright added, “This is truly next generation technology that supplies the actionable information our own providers need, versus the traditional, labor-intensive process of sifting through six months-old claims data or clicking through screens within an EMR in an attempt to find the highest risk patients. Importantly, this will also help us easily meet health plans’ expectations of how we manage patient populations and end healthcare disparities.”

Why CareEmpower’s actionable data makes the difference

One physician who can attest to the old limitations in practicing preventative care is Dr. Mark Stephan, medical director of Equality Health. Stephan practiced family medicine for 19 years, and vividly remembers the worry over patients who likely needed follow-up attention, but were hard to identify in meaningful numbers via paper claims or even after the advent of EHRs.

“Preventative care has been the healthcare industry’s proverbial trip to Mars for decades. Everyone wants to go there, but no one could quite figure out how,” Stephan observed.

He continued, “The CareEmpower platform is our rocket to Mars. The data it aggregates from numerous sources collectively provides a real-time window into the health status of entire patient populations.”

Drawing on these rich data sets, the HealthBI system enables providers to:

Identify at risk patients at scale including social determinates

Generate integrated physical and behavioral care plans

Close care gaps to meet quality performance metrics

Coordinate and track care activities across all care teams

Gain a real time view of patient status, including during critical transitions

The CareEmpower platform enables quality incentives to be met on both the health plan side, and by providers working under risk-based contracts. It is typically provided by payers or associated health plans and networks free of charge to providers. They can also opt to equip providers with training on the intuitive system, including how to leverage it to qualify for value-based care incentives.

“Our goal is to thrill clinicians with a tool that, at long last, helps them provide true, comprehensive care to all patient populations. It will also help them finally complete that last mile needed to integrate and coordinate both physical and behavioral care for their patients. These are two monumental capabilities–in one platform,” Wright concluded.

About Equality Health

Equality Health, LLC, is an Arizona-based integrated delivery system focused on improving care delivery for underserved populations through culturally-sensitive programs that improve access, quality and patient trust. Through an integrated technology and services platform, culturally competent provider network and unique cultural care model, Equality Health helps managed care plans and health systems improve care for the Hispanic population while simultaneously making the transition to risk-based accountability. For more information about Equality Health, visit www.equalityhealth.com or follow @EqualityHealth on Facebook and @EqualityHealth1 on Twitter.

About HealthBI

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, HealthBI was created by a team of industry leaders and physicians to fill the need for tools that enable healthcare payers and providers to reduce admissions and readmissions, automate care transition, and improve value-based care performance and HEDIS outcomes. Today, the company’s care coordination and care management platform for population health management, including CareEmpower™, is the most widely used in the nation and deployed in over 62,000 clinical sites across 50 states. HealthBI customers have reported results that span from a 25 percent decrease in 30 day re-admits to a nearly 300 percent improvement in closing gaps in patient care. HealthBI is a subsidiary of parent company Equality Health. To learn more about HealthBI, visit www.healthbi.com and follow HealthBI on Twitter and LinkedIn.